d never mentioned him but as plain Gerard. But
Margaret told her flatly she did not believe her; at which Reicht was
affronted, and went out with a little toss of the head. However, she
determined to question the hermit again, and did not doubt he would be
more liberal in his communication when he saw his nice new pelisse and
the candles.

She had not been gone long when Giles came in with ill news.

The living of Gouda would be kept vacant no longer.

Margaret was greatly distressed at this.

"Oh, Giles," said she, "ask for another month. They will give thee
another month, maybe."

He returned in an hour to tell her he could not get a month.

"They have given me a week," said he. "And what is a week?"

"Drowning bodies catch at strawen," was her reply. "A week? a little
week?"

Reicht came back from her errand out of spirits. Her oracle had declined
all further communication. So at least its obstinate silence might
fairly be interpreted.

The next day Margaret put Reicht in charge of the shop, and disappeared
all day. So the next day, and so the next. Nor would she tell any one
where she had been. Perhaps she was ashamed. The fact is, she spent all
those days on one little spot of ground. When they thought her dreaming,
she was applying to every word that fell from Joan and Reicht the whole
powers of a far acuter mind than either of them possessed.

She went to work on a scale that never occurred to either of them. She
was determined to see the hermit, and question him face to face, not
through a wall. She found that by making a circuit she could get above
the cave, and look down without being seen by the solitary. But when she
came to do it, she found an impenetrable mass of brambles. After tearing
her clothes, and her hands and feet, so that she was soon covered with
blood, the resolute, patient girl took out her scissors and steadily
snipped and cut till she made a narrow path through the enemy. But so
slow was the work that she had to leave it half done. The next day she
had her scissors fresh ground, and brought a sharp knife as well, and
gently, silently, cut her way to the roof of the cave. There she made an
ambush of some of the cut brambles, so that the passers-by might not see
her, and couched with watchful eye till the hermit should come out. She
heard him move underneath her. But he never left his cell. She began to
think it was true that he only came out at night.

The next day she came early